NOTN- The University of Alaska Southeast says its textbook affordability program has saved students more than $1 million since it began in 2016.
According to national surveys and studies on the affordability of course materials, about 65% of college students did not buy their textbooks because they were too expensive and 77% of students delayed purchasing their textbooks due to high cost. Students who face food insecurity are often the most heavily impacted, having to make a choice between buying meals and purchasing textbooks.
The initiative, encourages faculty to use low-cost or zero-cost course materials in place of traditional commercial textbooks. According to the university, more than 200 faculty have offered 889 “Zero Textbook Cost” courses, saving students an average of $225,000 each semester.
“Offering affordable access to an excellent education is our #1 priority at UAS.” Chancellor Aparna Palmer said in a statement. “Thanks to the leadership of the Egan Library and the hard work of our faculty and staff, we help ensure that our students can learn more deeply, finish their degrees, and achieve their dreams.”
The effort is part of a national shift toward using open educational resources (OER), which are free, adaptable, and often more up-to-date than traditional textbooks.
According to UAS these open educational resources enable both students and faculty to benefit, because the materials can be adapted to fit the needs of today’s students, they also help strengthen student participation.
UAS began marking “Zero Textbook Cost” courses in 2022, allowing students to easily search for affordable options when registering for classes.
By the end of the spring 2025 semester, the university estimates more than 10,000 students have benefited from the program.
One of two main craters on Alaska’s Mount Spurr, shown in 1991. Earthquake activity suggested the volcano was close to erupting again in 2025. (Photo by R.G. McGimsey/Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey, CC BY)
Alaska’s volcano experts no longer expect an eruption anytime soon from Mount Spurr, the closest active volcano to Anchorage.
On Wednesday, the Alaska Volcano Observatory formally lowered the alert level for Mount Spurr from yellow to green after months of declining activity.
“Things are OK right now, and hopefully that continues in the future,” said David Fee, coordinating scientist for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, which operates the observatory alongside the U.S. Geological Survey.
While the land immediately around Spurr isn’t inhabited, ash emitted from the volcano has disrupted life in Southcentral Alaska before. In 1953 and 1992, Spurr eruptions dumped ash on Anchorage, disrupting air travel.
Starting in February 2024, scientists had observed large numbers of small earthquakes beneath the volcano, and ground near it was deforming, surging upward. Ice atop the volcano melted, and air samples taken above the volcano showed signs of magma moving beneath the surface.
Scientists had been monitoring Crater Peak, a site south of Mount Spurr’s summit, as the likely spot of an eruption.
In October 2024, they raised the volcano’s alert level, and by March of this year, the volcano observatory said an eruption was “likely.”
But soon after that estimate, the signs of an imminent eruption began to diminish. There were fewer earthquakes, and the ground stopped rising as quickly as it had been.
Earlier this summer, the volcano observatory issued a statement saying that the odds of an eruption had fallen, and Spurr continued to quiet, leading to Wednesday’s announcement.
“What we’re seeing right now is all … really consistent with magma that intruded (beneath the volcano) and then stopped intruding. But it’s still creating some signals such as increased gas emissions and kind of weak seismicity,” Fee said.
While Spurr erupted in 1953 and 1992, darkening the skies over Anchorage with ash, it has also previously signaled an eruption that never came to pass.
In 2004 and 2006, the volcano showed signs of unrest for months but never erupted. The most recent period of unrest seems to resemble those two false starts.
Even though the volcano didn’t erupt, it has the potential to offer a scientific bonanza. AVO staff installed a network of seismic, infrasound and ground-measuring devices around Spurr, making it the most-monitored volcano in the state, according to the number of instruments listed on the AVO’s website.
“As we’re starting to look back now, at the period of unrest, it’s often just as interesting or scientifically valuable to understand why volcanoes don’t erupt, because they don’t, over half the time, approximately. Are there maybe some signals or something in our data that we can kind of tease out to help us understand why it didn’t erupt?” Fee said, looking back at what was learned.
“I think understanding why that occurred will be really important,” he said.
AVO and the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management also spent months educating Southcentral Alaskans about the possibility of ashfall, reminding them that they live in a volcanically active area.
That work will live on, too, Fee said, and people will be better informed the next time an eruption looks likely.
“Because they don’t happen that frequently in Cook Inlet, it was kind of a good reminder for people to be aware, to understand the hazards that are out there,” he said.
Rear Admiral Bob Little (right) and Ensign Camden Martin prepare to take part in the heat-and-beat competition on Wednesday in Juneau. (Photos/Video by Greg Knight)
Rear Admiral Bob Little (right) and Ensign Camden Martin prepare to take part in the heat-and-beat competition on Wednesday, August 20 in Juneau. (Photos/Videos by Greg Knight/NOTN)
By Greg Knight, News of the North
The 2025 U.S. Coast Guard Buoy Tender Round-Up Olympics was held in Juneau Wednesday, August 20 at the Coast Guard Station in downtown.
The BTR Olympics is an annual event that gives participants an opportunity to receive specialized training, discuss ways of enhancing effectiveness, and test the seamanship skills that enable crews to excel at Aids to Navigation missions in the Arctic.
Events included the chain pull, line toss, boom spot, tug-o-war, and heat-and-beat events.
Crew members from the vessels Kukui, Cypress, Fir, Aspen, Anthony Petite, and Elderberry took part.
Lieutenant Megan Grimes is the Coast Guard’s spokesperson for the event in Juneau. Aboard the Kukui, she told News of the North about the value events like the Olympics have in day-to-day operations in Alaska.
“The Olympics are very important because it’s essentially a skills competition,” Lt. Grimes said. “These are skills that the units employ underway during normal operations, and it’s a way to showcase the that proficiency, and with some friendly competition, rile each other up, see who does it best, and also learn from each other and learn from each other’s best practices.”
Boatswain’s Mate Second Class Shane Wood of the Cutter Cypress said unit cohesion among Alaskan units grows thanks to events like this one.
“The big thing that we do here is the networking, everybody comes together in one centralized area, which is uncommon,” BM2 Wood said. “So, unit to unit, we can help each other, as well as [help] within our own unit. We learn how to work together, through these events and the trainings we attend.”
The heat-and-beat competition, which involves heating a shackle pin with a torch until it’s glowing orange, and then using sledgehammers to drive the pin into place and secure a new chain link for a buoy, featured Rear Admiral Bob Little and Ensign Camden Martin on a team.
BM2 Wood said is was great to see a senior officer like Admiral Little, who is commander of the Coast Guard Arctic District, take part in the event.
“You get to see their appreciation for what we do, and the lower ranks, they can see that they they actually care about the job and what we do,” Wood added. “It’s super cool to see them out here doing heat and beats and doing the work.”
Rear Admiral Bob Little (right) and Ensign Camden Martin take part in the heat-and-beat competition on Wednesday, August 20 in Juneau.
Crews aboard Coast Guard buoy tenders in Alaska service more than 1,300 navigational aids along 33,000 miles of coastline, as well as conduct search and rescue, environmental protection and law enforcement missions.
NOTN- The Glory Hall shelter says it will stop offering dayroom services to non-residents later this month, citing worsening safety conditions around the facility.
The Glory Hall, which offers food, shelter and daytime support at its Teal Street location, plans to end its day services on Aug. 26.
Going forward, only individuals staying overnight at the shelter will have access to the dayroom. Others will be allowed inside only when meeting with a case manager, clinician, or outreach worker.
“The Teal Street area is probably the most major area of JPD patrol right now. There’s a lot of extra patrol that goes on over there.” Said Deputy City Manager Robert Barr.
Barr said the city will continue discussions with shelter staff, police and service providers in the coming weeks as the shift takes effect.
The Glory Hall has served Juneau’s unhoused community for decades. Its decision to adjust services comes amid continued assaults, criminal activity, and “general chaos” near the Teal Street site, including sales of illegal drugs and stolen goods.
Despite more than a year of meetings with residents and city officials, the board says the environment is no longer tenable.
The House of Representatives is seen largely empty on Aug. 19, 2025. After lawmakers voted to override two of the governor’s vetoes on Aug. 2, most members departed Juneau and the special session. Legislative leadership said they will take up policy items at the next regular session. (Photo by Corinne Smith/Alaska Beacon)
The Alaska State Legislature gaveled in and out Tuesday as a technical step in running down the clock on a special session, slated to end Aug. 31.
Legislative leaders say they’ve already accomplished their priorities — successfully overriding two vetoes by Gov. Mike Dunleavy — and have no interest in taking up further business this month. Dunleavy had called the special session and asked lawmakers to work on education and agriculture measures.
The House and Senate presiding officers — House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, and Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak — were both on a morning flight that was delayed due to Juneau fog, pushing back the planned floor sessions for more than an hour. But within minutes, they adjourned both the House and Senate until another session at 10 a.m. Aug 31. That’s also expected to be a brief formality, known as a “technical” session.
“We’re going to stand our ground,” Edgmon said in an interview afterward. “And if he wants to call us back in,” he said referring to the chance of the governor calling another special session, “‘second verse same as the first,’ you know. The results are going to be ‘second verse same as the first,’ too.”
Edgmon and Stevens both confirmed that the governor’s education policy priorities would be considered by a new joint education funding task force, which is scheduled to meet Aug. 25, and in the regular session in January.
Stevens also pointed to the next session for considering a new Alaska Department of Agriculture, as the Legislature has rejected Dunleavy’s executive order creating one. Dunleavy had asked the Legislature again to act on the order in August.
“If it’s his executive order, we can’t affect that. We can’t amend it. We can’t change it in any way. And so we much prefer to have a bill,” Stevens said in an interview Tuesday. “The advantage of going through the legislative process is that we take the time to study all the issues. We can hear various legislators’ thoughts on it, we can hear from the public, and it just winds up with a better process.”
Sen. Robert Myers, R-North Pole, said by phone on Tuesday that the Republican-led minority caucus supports Dunleavy’s education policy items and would have liked to see them considered. “It was at least an opportunity for us to try to drill down a little further and take some time on different education policies, rather than just talking about the funding that was vetoed and then moving on,” he said.
Jeff Turner, Dunleavy’s communications director, said by email on Tuesday, “it’s disappointing that the legislature is choosing to kick the can down the road.”
Asked whether Dunleavy plans to call another special session this fall, Turner replied that if the governor chose to do so, it would be announced in a press release.
Myers said he’s not confident there would be any further work or negotiation if the governor called another special session. “Of course, that’s his prerogative, but the way that the majorities are behaving, I don’t see that anything significant is going to change, which is, again, disappointing. You know, we should be focusing on our outcomes for our students, not on playing these kinds of political games.”
Five legislators attended the technical sessions, including Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, Rep. Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, and Edgmon in the House and Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, and Stevens in the Senate.
Mendenhall Glacier, photo courtesy of Alaska Beacon
NOTN- Juneau officials reflected on the city’s response to this month’s glacial outburst flood, saying while the emergency actions were effective more work is needed to strengthen protections.
Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said “We’ve been getting a fair amount of expressions of concern that we’re early in congratulating the people that worked on it, expressing our appreciation and thanks, and we have, because it was a great response to a tragic event. At the same time, I think we are all capable of holding two truths at once, we have work to do. We have a long road ahead of us, the barrier project was far from perfect.”
Following a damage assessment of the city, it was revealed that 16 houses experienced minor water damage while six homes suffered major impacts, primarily on View Drive.
Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon said damage repairs could cost up to a million dollars. “We’re not standing around patting ourselves on the back. We’re just thankful that the houses didn’t get flooded to the number that happened last year, and we are continuing to look for not just another phase of our short term, but also our long term solution.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the temporary flood barriers helped protect Juneau neighborhoods during last week’s flood.
The Corps shipped more than 37,000 feet of barrier wall, 112,000 sandbags, and other materials from Illinois to Juneau, where they were placed in phases along 2.5 miles of the river.
Floodwaters peaked at 16.6 ft., the highest on record.
“The HESCO worked.” Said Mayor Weldon, “and yes, there’s water in people’s yards on the other side, but the difference in height is pretty tremendous.”
An early voting station is set up in the atrium of the State Office Building in Juneau, Alaska on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, the first day of early voting for the 2024 Alaska primary election. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
An early voting station is set up in the atrium of the State Office Building in Juneau, Alaska on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, the first day of early voting for the 2024 Alaska primary election. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
NOTN- Juneau’s proposal to adopt ranked choice voting in municipal elections is headed for another public hearing in November.
Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the Assembly held its first hearing on the measure last night and advanced it to the Nov. 3 meeting.
“We had our first public hearing on it last night.” Said Barr, “an information release went out yesterday as well to help people understand how it would work in local elections.”
Under the proposal, voters could rank candidates in single-seat races, like for mayor or assembly. If no one wins a majority outright, the lowest-ranked candidates are eliminated and ballots are redistributed until one candidate secures over 50 percent.
The change would not apply to multimember races, like the school board, which would stay under the current system.
Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon said testimony so far has been split for and against the proposal.
“We had four people, two for it and two against it.” Said Weldon,”We’re keeping that on our radar.”
The city is weighing potential benefits and considerations, saying ranked- choice voting could add more consistency for voters and may increase the number of people willing to run for office, however they also note transitioning to a new election process could be difficult on voters and election staff, and counting could be more complex than the current voting system.
The House chambers are seen on Friday, May 13, 2022 at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
By: Corinne Smith, Alaska Beacon
The House chambers are seen on Friday, May 13, 2022 at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)
The Alaska State Legislature is planning a brief session without taking any action on Tuesday, and legislative leaders say they’ve already completed their intended work for the special session, which ends on Aug. 31.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy called the 30-day session, which began on Aug. 2, for legislators to address his education policy priorities and to create a new Alaska Department of Agriculture. The Legislature convened — one senator flying back from U.S. National Guard duty in Poland — and within hours voted to override two of the governor’s vetoes. Lawmakers then adjourned until Tuesday.
Legislators voted to leave the session open and not officially close out the special session to prevent Dunleavy from calling them into another one.
On Tuesday, just “a handful” of legislators are expected to be present for what’s known as a “technical session,” said House Speaker Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, reached by phone Monday in his district.
Edgmon said he was planning to fly back to Juneau to facilitate proceedings in the House on Tuesday, but said it will be brief.
He said the Legislature’s votes to override two of the governor’s vetoes, including restoring $51 million for K-12 schools, was a success – and their only goal for the special session.
“But the specter of the governor calling us right back in seems to be very prominent,” Edgmon said. “And we had to do what we had to do in terms of allowing members to go back home, go back to their districts, not being Juneau, drawing per diem, costing the state money — with the stated intention, of course, of looking at the governor’s bills, continuing to consider the governor’s bills and the subject matter next session, as we started to do last session.”
The governor introduced three bills on Aug. 2, related to education policy, and Edgmon said they have been referred to related committees.
Edgmon said he’s had no communication from the governor’s office since the veto override votes.
“I wish we had a better relationship with the governor, to where we could plan things out, work jointly in terms of any outcomes for a special session. The governor is acting unilaterally, which, of course, is his prerogative, should he choose. But that does not bode well in terms of any kind of a positive result for special session,” he said.
Jeff Turner, the governor’s communications director, said by email Monday, “lawmakers should not need an incentive to improve public education policy,” and that it was the Legislature’s decision to not take up the governor’s bills during this special session.
Turner pointed to the governor’s comments on an Anchorage-based commercial radio show on Aug. 14, where Dunleavy criticized the Legislature’s veto override restoring school funding, and said additional funding is “not going to change the performance outcomes.”
The House and Senate are scheduled to gavel in at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
A new joint legislative education funding task force is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Aug 25, where its six members are expected to examine how the state funds schools, as well as Dunleavy’s educational policy items.
Former Alaska Senator Tom Begich is looking to make a political comeback.
On Monday, the Anchorage lawmaker officially filed to run for governor in 2026, putting his name forward as the first Democrat to jump into the race.
Begich served in the Alaska Senate from 2017 to 2023. He served as Senate Minority Leader from 2019 to the end of his term.
“After years of divisiveness stagnating Alaska, it’s time for leadership that listens, understands where we have come from, and has a clear vision for where we can go. I believe we can turn Alaska around. We can bring hope and opportunity back to our state. We can unify our cultures and communities. Together, we can build our future around the shared values that make Alaska unique,” Begich said in a press release.
On the Republican side, the field is already crowded. The list of declared candidates includes former Senator Click Bishop, former Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum, Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom, Mat-Su Borough Mayor Edna DeVries, State Medical Board member Matt Heilala, Senator Shelley Hughes, retired educator James Parkin, and entrepreneur Bernadette Wilson.
But the Republican side may not be finished. U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski has said she’s considering it, and Attorney General Treg Taylor is also being talked about as a possible contender.
For Democrats, the big question mark is former Congresswoman Mary Peltola. Though she hasn’t made an announcement, many in her party see her as a strong potential challenger in the race.
This drone image provided by the City and Borough of Juneau shows flooding from a release of water and snowmelt at Mendenhall Glacier covered some roads and threatened homes along the Mendenhall River in Juneau, Alaska on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (City and Borough of Juneau via AP)
This drone image provided by the City and Borough of Juneau shows flooding from a release of water and snowmelt at Mendenhall Glacier covered some roads and threatened homes along the Mendenhall River in Juneau, Alaska on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (City and Borough of Juneau via AP)
Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon provided more details following a damage assessment of the city’s recent glacier lake outburst flood, revealing that 16 houses experienced minor water damage while six homes suffered major impacts, primarily on View Drive.
“16 houses were affected, and what affected means is they had water in their garage that they could just vacuum up, or water in their crawl space, but there was no damage to insulation or sheet rock or anything like that.” Said Mayor Weldon, “25 minor, so that means water in their house or their garage affected something besides just being able to shop Vac, but did not go up past outlets in the wall.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says temporary flood barriers helped protect Juneau neighborhoods during last week’s flood.
The Corps shipped more than 37,000 feet of barrier wall, 112,000 sandbags, and other materials from Illinois to Juneau, where they were placed in phases along 2.5 miles of the river.
Floodwaters peaked at 16.6 ft., the highest on record.
Of the 751 homes above the 17-foot flood line, most remained unaffected by recent flooding. The city’s HESCO barriers largely performed as intended, though some areas experienced water seepage and tree damage.
Mayor Weldon says there were about 6 homes with major damage. “of those six major, five are on View Drive. So we know that View Drive is still a dilemma for us.” she also stated about 23 homes were unverified.
